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Old 12-31-2024, 08:52 PM   #1
sydmalicious
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When disaster strikes...

I have had to uproot my life several times over the last four years and in that time, I have made sure to be careful with the hard drives and backups I use so that no data is lost or corrupted.

Unfortunately we can't always control circumstances and that has happened to me. My uncle and his friend graciously took all my stuff to storage for me; I don't drive. The issue is they are older (80+) and do not understand that spinning disks are fragile, and tossed them into a plastic tub.

Got to where I am currently and two drives, a 6 TB and 12 TB drives that were working well before they threw them in the container are dead. I expected the 12 TB to die as it was making clicking sounds but the 6TB one is brutal.

This means I've lost multiple terabytes of data. I run servers, or I did, and now that I am in a motel room, I have no access to that stuff as most of the books and media I had were stored on local servers through Proxmox. I was paying for Backblaze but stopped after money got really tight.

I would be distraught- old photos and documents are on that 12 TB drive however I have a NAS that has a backup service on it, and when that 12TB drive was dying I made sure to copy the majority of that drive to my NAS.

At first I felt sick about it, but it just reminded me that:

a. local copies of things, whether on your own network/homelab are only as good as the internet you have and the place you are living. If you can't have a homelab for a while, it is best to use something like Pikapods for critical services. This way your data is always available.

b. life comes at you fast so that $9/mo for Backblaze is a must. I can't go without it again lest I lose everything without recourse.

Do you have any nightmarish scenarios you've had to deal with, overcome, or recover from?
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Old 12-31-2024, 09:22 PM   #2
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I keep my data both on external drives and in Dropbox, because IMO it's best to have both local and offsite copies. Yes, sometimes it has not been easy to pay for Dropbox, but I always try to find the money, as it's important to me.
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Old 01-01-2025, 02:26 AM   #3
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You can also try to find a friend to pair up with. Put your remote backup system in their house and they put their backup system in yours. The "remote backup system" does not have to be high end. A Raspberry Pi with an external disk will do just fine. The entire setup fits into probably 8"x8"x4" of space.

I did this with my mom when she was still alive. My nightly backups ended up in her home and hers ended up in mine. She wasn't involved and didn't even realize I was doing this. I am the computer guy in the family. Unfortunately, once she passed I never set this system up again. I might try to find a friend wanting to pair up and set it up again.

One negative of this setup is what happens if you die (assuming you are the computer guru of the family)? Will the rest of the family (assumed to not be computer gurus) be able to figure things out and retrieve something from these remote backups? If not, it may be better to go with a commercial backup offering and just pay for it (and the computer support they will give your family after you're gone).

As I get older I'm realizing that all the cool stuff I am able to set up and administer might not work for the family after I'm gone. So the above setup may not be for everyone. I'm starting to think that while it was good for me in the past, it may not be good for me in the future.

If you do end up putting stuff on a commercial solution like DropBox, GoogleDrive, etc. - make sure you are well versed in security, encryption, and stuff like that. You don't want (at least I don't want) to have stuff on these 3rd party servers that those 3rd parties could decrypt. You want to control that aspect totally on your own IMHO. Those 3rd parties should never see even one byte of your data that is not well encrypted by you, outside of their control/influence. It does you no good if they state that your data is automatically encrypted - when THEY can decrypt it. Their encryption may help in some scenarios - other people couldn't decrypt it - but you're putting your trust into that 3rd party who could decrypt it if they had a mind to. I wouldn't trust them, or trust the government that may force them to decrypt it even if unwilling.
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Old 01-01-2025, 02:57 AM   #4
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If you do end up putting stuff on a commercial solution like DropBox, GoogleDrive, etc. - make sure you are well versed in security, encryption, and stuff like that. You don't want (at least I don't want) to have stuff on these 3rd party servers that those 3rd parties could decrypt. You want to control that aspect totally on your own IMHO. Those 3rd parties should never see even one byte of your data that is not well encrypted by you, outside of their control/influence. It does you no good if they state that your data is automatically encrypted - when THEY can decrypt it. Their encryption may help in some scenarios - other people couldn't decrypt it - but you're putting your trust into that 3rd party who could decrypt it if they had a mind to. I wouldn't trust them, or trust the government that may force them to decrypt it even if unwilling.
Personally, I don't care if they can decrypt it or not - I don't have any sensitive data there. They can decrypt my ebooks, saved webpages, cat pictures and wallpaper collection to their heart's content.

I have very little truly sensitive data at all - I guess I'm an extremely boring person.

As to keeping my data at someone else's place, there's no one I visit often enough to keep it up to date. My parents are dead and I'm basically a recluse, so no friends.

And there's no one in my family who would be interested in my stuff after my death, so that's not a problem.

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Old 01-01-2025, 07:41 PM   #5
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I have very little truly sensitive data at all
There is a lot of stuff that was not considered sensitive in the past that is now sensitive.

Take for example - here in the USA - your Social Security Number. You wouldn't have that number in Estonia, but there could be some kind of "unique government number" that is assigned to you for some reason or another (retirement benefits or something else). Used to be, every place here asked for your Social Security Number and often times used it as the primary index into your data in their databases. Stores also required you to write it down on checks that you paid for merchandise with. But these days, this number is considered quite sensitive here in the USA. You wouldn't dream of writing it down on a check you were paying for merchandise with.

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I don't have any sensitive data there. They can decrypt my ebooks, saved webpages, cat pictures and wallpaper collection to their heart's content.
With just the minute amount of information in your last sentence above, if I were a hacker trying to get into one of your bank accounts, I would narrow the type of passwords I would start guessing to ones that contained some reference or connection to cats. Especially pets that you may have had over your life. Probably books too. I would look at what specific eBooks you have and try and determine if you were into sci-fi, romance, biographies, etc. I would look at your wallpaper pictures and see if anything popped out there as being if special interest to you.

Now, you may be more like me and have passwords that look like kO2d&jeRq_b_]ay<F-SL, and your interest in cats would have no benefit in guessing that. But if you're like a lot of people, you might be realizing about now that having your cat's name in your password, even if slightly obscured, is not such a good idea. And it's amazing how lots of times someone could look at a picture of you holding your cat (one of your wallpaper pics possibly) and be able to guess the cat's name. Because that's the way you came up with a name for it in the first place, based on it's looks. e.g., a solid black cat might be named Midnight, Onyx, Cinder, etc.

e.g., We once had a dog named "Cuda". How did we come up with that name? Well, the dog was a Newfoundland, and Newfoudlands love water (they even have slightly webbed feet!) We were thinking of things having to do with water. "Barracuda" came to mind for some reason. Too long, so we shortened that to Cuda. Another dog we had was named "January". She was pure white. Like snow. Which happens here in January. Now a human might not be able to put these kind of thought processes into a viable plan to crack a password, but a computer making a million guesses per second certainly could.

My point being, the more "non-sensitive" information you reveal about yourself, the easier it becomes to guess the "sensitive stuff". If you are not totally random in your life (and who is?), then there are patterns and processes that exist and can be determined even from "non-sensitive" information. That's why cryptography always starts out with some kind of "random seed". If it's not random, then anyone trying to break that encryption has a much easier job. Same with your life events.

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As to keeping my data at someone else's place, there's no one I visit often enough to keep it up to date.
I was talking about remote backup over the internet, not over the sneakernet.
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Old 01-01-2025, 08:04 PM   #6
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They're welcome to my bank accounts - I have mostly nothing there these days. Poor as dirt, no savings. For the same reason, no one could take out a loan or get a credit card in my name - because no one would give me a loan or a credit card.

And the bank accounts here are not based on passwords - they're based on other, more secure identification methods.

As to my passwords, no, I don't use my cats' names in them, or any place/character names occurring in the books. Or any existing words, of course. I use made-up words combined with numbers and special characters. Those made-up words don't exist anywhere in my digital stuff - I keep them written on a paper at home.

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Old 01-01-2025, 09:27 PM   #7
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Poor as dirt, no savings.
Aw, I'm sorry. Somebody should take you to lunch or something.

You can't backup too many different ways. I still use DVDs for backup. In today's world 4.7 GB is tiny, but it's a lot if you're talking about what you typed personally. No, I haven't typed 4.7 GB yet.
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Old 01-01-2025, 10:03 PM   #8
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Aw, I'm sorry. Somebody should take you to lunch or something.
It's not quite so bad as that, I still manage to feed myself and my cats.

On the bright side, no one can take from you what you don't have, so I'm pretty safe from crooks and scoundrels who want to swindle one out of one's money.
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Old 01-01-2025, 11:46 PM   #9
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I keep my data both on external drives and in Dropbox, because IMO it's best to have both local and offsite copies. Yes, sometimes it has not been easy to pay for Dropbox, but I always try to find the money, as it's important to me.
Yep come payday, I will be reupping Backblaze. This amount of data loss is painful.
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Old 01-02-2025, 04:24 AM   #10
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The thing with Backblaze - at least with their PC backup offering - is that all encryption/decryption of data at is done server-side. This means that they need the private key and passphrase so they can decrypt your data. By default, Backblaze keeps both the private key and its passphrase.

They do offer some option they call "private key" I believe, but that just allows you to set the passphrase for your private key. It order to access your data, you have to give Backblaze your passphrase so they can decrypt it (remember, all Backblaze encryption/decryption happens server-side, not client-side). So with this "private key" option, THEY have the private key and YOU have the passphrase to make that private key usable. That sounds more secure. But you have to give THEM your passphrase in order to be able to access your data. So really, the "private key" option does nothing to make your data more secure, although it initially sounds like it would.

Having to give them your private key (actually, the passphrase for your private key, because they always have the private key) nukes any private security you thought you had. They do not provide you with "end-to-end" encryption, or "zero knowledge" encryption.

I think for the typical computer user who doesn't know anything about security, encryption, etc. that Backblaze PC backup is a good thing. Backblaze is a big company that has been around for a long time. It is unlikely they would compromise your security and decrypt your data on a whim. They would lose many of their clients if word got out about them doing that. But the fact is - they COULD decrypt your data. Unless you chose the "private key" option and never gave them your passphrase. In that case they could not access your data. But then, neither could you. Making their whole service rather pointless. Still, even with the security holes mentioned, for the typical computer user, Backblaze is far better than nothing and probably provides a reasonable level of security. Not bulletproof security, but reasonable security. Really, the only breaches you'd have to worry about would come from Backblaze themselves. Or from a government subpona for your data from Backblaze. Even with a subpoena, Backblaze could not decrypt your data with the "private key" option and you not giving them your passphrase. But the subpoena could theoretically instruct Backblaze to capture your passphrase the first time you use it to access your data, and then they could fill the subpoena by decrypting at that point.

The above issue is what now haunts me about my security and backup setup. It is nice and secure. And I doubt anybody in my family could figure it out, even with detailed instructions, once I'm gone. Which means maybe I should give up on ultimate security and go for something not so bulletproof - like Backblaze. At least they should be able to help my family access our data when I'm gone. But another gotcha is that Backblaze apparently does not support Linux (which is what all of my computers and servers run). My wife have a laptop and desktop computer that runs Windows. But a lot of the stuff that she uses is actually hosted on a Linux server. She doesn't remember that and probably thinks it is actually local on her Windows computers.

Such is the life of a retired computer engineer who was heavy into corporate security. The most secure thing that I would do for myself is not necessarily the best solution for my less computer savvy family. It pains me to think about lessening security. But it also pains me to think I might have things so secure that even my family couldn't get to them after I'm gone.
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Old 01-02-2025, 04:52 AM   #11
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Is there any practical way to keep your data encrypted when using a remote backup service? You could encase all your files in encrypted 7-Zip archives or encrypted filesystem containers, but then you'll have to upload/download large containers every time you want to refresh a single file.
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Old 01-02-2025, 08:09 AM   #12
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They're welcome to my bank accounts - I have mostly nothing there these days. Poor as dirt, no savings. For the same reason, no one could take out a loan or get a credit card in my name - because no one would give me a loan or a credit card.

And the bank accounts here are not based on passwords - they're based on other, more secure identification methods.

As to my passwords, no, I don't use my cats' names in them, or any place/character names occurring in the books. Or any existing words, of course. I use made-up words combined with numbers and special characters. Those made-up words don't exist anywhere in my digital stuff - I keep them written on a paper at home.

I don't want your money. (Or lack thereof.) I want your ebook readers!

And maybe a pizza.
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Old 01-02-2025, 10:57 AM   #13
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I don't want your money. (Or lack thereof.) I want your ebook readers!

And maybe a pizza.
Well, I'm not going to give up my Kobos, so you'll just have to grin and bear it.
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Old 01-02-2025, 02:26 PM   #14
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Is there any practical way to keep your data encrypted when using a remote backup service? You could encase all your files in encrypted 7-Zip archives or encrypted filesystem containers, but then you'll have to upload/download large containers every time you want to refresh a single file.
You might want to look into "Cryptomator". That encrypts on a file basis, not a container basis.

https://cryptomator.org/

When you look at Cryptomator documentation, it mentions a "vault". But this is not a vault in the sense of Veracrypt type encryption. It's not a "one big file container" type of vault that holds everything. Files are encrypted separately. So if you have 100 files, and change one of them, when that gets uploaded to the cloud is that one file (maybe with an additional overhead file or two). Not the whole giant bundle of all 100 files like would happen with a Veracrypt vault.

You would also need to make sure your backup service allows you to specify only what you want uploaded/backed up. As I understand it, Backblaze uploads basically your entire computer by default. I think you can blacklist certain files/directories that you don't want uploaded. What you really want IMHO is not a blacklist strategy, you want a whitelist strategy. Where you tell the backup service what you do want backed up, not what you don't want backed up. Backblaze type setups are better for non-computer people who have no idea what they would or would not want backed up, so the default of "everything" is the best option for them. But you end up backing up a ton of useless garbage that way. But again, that's the safest option for the non-computer-guru group of users. Each backup strategy has its strong points and weak points. Different services target different user bases.

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Old 01-06-2025, 03:36 AM   #15
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Sorry about your loss, I feel you as similar happened to me once when a 4TB drive was destroyed with all the crown jewels on is.

Now I have 2 backups, one at home and one at family so not in my house in case of a fire, and the most important data I also have backed up by uploading it to cloud services.

There are chances that you drives could be repaired or at least data could be recovered from them as long as the plates are not destroyed, it's expensive though.
But keep the drives in case you can afford it later on to send it in to experts for advanced data recovery.
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